Railroad-cab coupling



J. RYAN.

V GAR COUPLING.

No. 13,274. Patented July 17,1855.

fllllllliillWl I mmm lI-Il UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN RYAN, OF WILMINGTON, DELAWARE.

RAILROAD-CAR COUPLING.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 13,274, dated July 17, 1855.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, JOHN RYAN, of VVilmington, in the county of Newcastle and State of Delaware, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Self Connecting and Detaching Car-Couplings; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part thereof, in which Figure 1 represents a longitudinal vertical section through a pair of trucks, taken at the red line 00 m of Fig. 2, and Fig. 2 represents a top view of the same trucks in full, and the coupling in place.

The nature of my invention relates to the peculiar form of the coupling bar, and the heads into which said bar takes, so as to form a selfacting coupling, as will be described.

A, A, represent two pair of truck frames, supported respectively on their wheels B B, and C, C, are two metallic plates firmly secured to those ends of the trucks upon which the coupling heads D, D, are arranged, to render them firm, and capable of resisting the shock of'the coming together ofthe cars. The heads D, D, are firmly united to the end pieces of the trucks, and to the plates C, C, and their faces are made concave toward the openings in them so that the coupling bar or hook E, may be directed into said openings, should the cars not stand in a direct line when backed to couple them.

The coupling bar or hook E, is of the form substantially, as seen in the drawings, and is balanced or poised in one of the heads D, so that its hooks or catches a, b, may hang with their points vertical as seen in the drawings, to readily catch over the projections c, c, on the inner, and underside, of the heads D, D. On one end of the hook or bar E, is wrought a piece cl, which hangs downward or vertically for the purpose of causing, in part, the said bar, to lie in its head D, in such position as to keep its hooks or catches a,,b, underneath as described and represented, and properly balanced or. oised in said head. To aid however in e ecting this position of the bar E,

point of the bar from dipping or raising the head D, in which the bar rests serving as its fulcra. This balancing or poising of the bar E may be done by springs if preferred, the object being to keep it in a horizontal or nearly horizontal position, until acted upon by some extraneous force in coupling or uncoupling as the case may be. Or by very great accuracy in its forging, the weighted end cl, of the bar may serve to keep the bar in its proper posit-ion. Another chain it is connected to the bar E, at its side (or one on each side if found important to use two), and may pass up to the platform of the car, convenient to the operator, so that by drawing up said chain the point or points of the coupling bar will be horizontal, and the cars be uncoupled, the curved planes, or surfaces of the point or hook I), and the projections 0 over which they catch when vertical, being such as to throw out the hook I), and uncouple.

About midway of the bar or coupling piece E, is a projection 2', which as the cars or heads D D, come together, enters partially into the concave faces of said heads, and by contact with them or either of them, the bar slides freely in its head without being changed from its coupling position, when the cars again straighten out. The points a, b, of the coupling bar which by constant use may become worn should be hardened, or faced with steel.

The extreme projecting end of the cou pling bar E, or that end which passes through the head D, has a curved plane 70 (Fig. 2) upon one of its sides and a portion I of its top part; and. on the opposite side, and under part, a precisely similar curved plane, so that if the coupling bar, when the cars are run together to be coupled, should not hang with its points underneath, these planes or either of them striking the rounded or concave face of the head D, will turn them over or around into right position for coupling.

On the backs of the heads D, D, and underneath the projections c thereon, are grooves 0, 0, (Fig. 1,) deep enough at their centers to receive the points of the hooks a, b, but which gradually run out at the sides, until at the points mm (Fig. 2) they entirely disappear. This is for the purpose of self uncoupling should one of the cars run off the track. The coupling is so formed as to road, but remain coupled, but whenever a car runs off the track, and the coupling bar, and heads become skewed from their natural running direction, the curved surfaces, or planes, of the coupling bar and head or heads, are such as to immediately throw the end of the bar in the head D out, and uncouple the cars. The curved groove and point a in the other coupling head D, are similar to those in D, so that the coupling bar, which is rigid will not be rest-rained in its motions, but be thrown out whether the force which uncouples come from one car or the other. The draw bar and coupling heads are so a'rranged that, by the skewing of the said heads when the engine or foremost car leaves the track, the draw bar is thrown into such position as to be detached from its socket by the leverage of the bar on the side of the coupling head. The heads D, D are alike in form for another purpose viz: that the coupling bar may be hung on either car or truck, and always couple when run up to another car or truck. The chains k, may all be united to one cord or chain running the whole length of the train, by the drawing of which long chain or cord, the engineer or attendant, at the approach of danger may instantly uncouple the whole train of cars from the engine and from each other.

It is obvious that while the gist of my invention lies in the peculiar forms of the coupling bar and heads, yet these forms may be varied and still produce the same effect, and I should claim the right of changing the forms of both or either, so long as I do not depart from the general characteristics of the invention.

Having thus fully described the nature of my invention, I would state that I do not claim a gravitating hook, nor do I claim a side moving hook for self uncoupling, independent of its particular connection with the draw heads, but

What I do claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- The surfaces of the hook, and inside and outside of the buffer mouth so arranged and constructed that, the hook presented in a vertical position, shall be caused to rotate to a horizontal position on entering, and resume its vertical position when driven in to hold the cars, and by a deviation of the cars to one side caused to rotate again to a horizontal position so as to uncouple by said deviation, and the leverage between the hook and headthe buffer mouth not allowing the hook to pass either way except when horizontal.

JOHN RYAN. Witnesses:

P. CoUNTIss. JOHN A. DUNCAN. 

